Date with Kate

Date with Kate: Wog Boys

27th October, 2013
Lunch with Wog Boys, Nick Giannopoulos and Vince Colosimo.

Lunch with Wog Boys, Nick Giannopoulos and Vince Colosimo.

Nick Giannopoulos and Vince Colosimo are reuniting for a return season of their stage comedy Wogboys. I caught up with them to chat about working together and how their Wogboy characters differ from their everyday lives.

Tell me about Wogboys – Live on Stage.

Nick: It opens in Sydney in February at Enmore Theatre. We’re going back to our roots, where it all started.

Vince: It’s been over 10 years since we did a stage show. It was a suggestion that was brought to our attention and we thought ”we’d love to”.

You seem to have fun together.

Nick: We do. We first did this show back in the mid-’90s and I’m rewriting it so it’s looking back at the ’90s from now. Being a wog boy then is so different to now, because now it’s kinda cool to be a wog, and that is what the show is all about – it’s at a time when it wasn’t cool to be a wog.

Do you hang out together when you’re not working?

Nick: Mick Jagger got asked the same question about Keith Richards and he said, ”Keith and I are good mates and we’ve known each other since we were kids, but he lives here and I live there and we see each other when we do the tours”. And it’s a bit like that with me and [Vince], but to be honest with you, the most we hang out is when we tour or do a film or stage show.

Vince: And to be totally honest, when you do a stage show with him, you’ve had enough [laughs]!

Your fans must get excited when they see you together.

Nick: They are often disappointed because we’re not like our characters, and they say, ”Who are these two yuppies?” I’m the biggest yuppie you’ll ever meet. I live in an apartment in inner Melbourne and I drive a yuppie car. I’m as yuppie as they come. They say, ”You don’t ever talk like him” and I say, ”Yes, that’s because it’s a character.” People just always expect you to be funny.

What happens when you’re not in a funny mood?

Nick: You kind of just have to be, it’s just the gig, and it is what it is. You just try and avoid putting yourself in those situations. I time everything I do to avoid those situations. I go to the supermarket at 10.30 at night. There are times you just want to be in your daggy clothes and not be bothered.

Vince, what was it like to work on The Great Gatsby?

Vince: I haven’t seen it yet! But it was great to be part of a big film like that. I found working with Baz Luhrmann amazing. He had a booklet given to all the extras, their character’s names and a background of all the people who didn’t have lines, [so they] still had a story. He gave them all a character breakdown and a name and he would come up to them and ask, ”What’s your name and tell me about your family”, or, ”You’re really poor, where do you want to be in life?” so everyone was always thinking and felt like they were there for a reason. I had never seen that before.

That was the second movie you worked with Leonardo DiCaprio. What’s he like to work with?

Vince: Yes, I worked on Body of Lies with him, that was a lot of fun. He is one of the lads, he’s good bloke. It’s hard for him to get out because he’s a major movie star and people are watching his every move but … he’s one of the boys.

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What are your hobbies when you’re not working?

Nick: I love to travel. I love seeing the world as much as I can.

Vince: We’re both from Melbourne and we love our sport. We spend a lot of time talking, thinking about sport. AFL is number one [and] we’re both soccer fans and love NRL – there isn’t much sport that we don’t actually get into.

Vince, will your daughter Lucia follow in your footsteps?

Vince: No, I don’t think so. She’s only 10 but she is a beautiful singer; she auditioned for The Voice the other day. We don’t know if she has gotten through yet but she was two of 20 to get through to the next round.

What’s next?

Nick: I’ve been spending a bit of time in LA as I’ve written and produced a comedy for the American market. That’s what I see myself doing more and more of. I’ve had to spend a lot of time immersing myself into their culture and humour so you can adapt yourself as a writer. Australian humour is radically different.

 

BITE SIZE

WE WENT TO Stacks Taverna, Darling Quarter.

WE ATE Pan-fried haloumi; spinach and cheese triangles; zucchini flowers; crispy soft shell crab; followed by a selection of Angus cut steaks from the grill with Greek salad and fries.

WE DRANK Sparkling water, Corona beer and Stacks chardonnay.

I WORE a LOVER top and pants.

VINCE WORE Diesel jeans, Diesel top.

NICK WORE Gap T-shirt, Diesel jeans, AG jacket.

Photography: Jacky Ghossein

See video of the interview at smh.com.au

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